By Carrie Salisbury: While originally daunted at the thought of teaching violin groups online, I have found that gathering my students together for weekly classes during our COVID-19 stay-home order has become the high point of my teaching week! ![Carrie Salisbury teaching]()
I love teaching my regular in-person group classes and I mourned the loss of familiar elements and benefits of that teaching dynamic. I came to a mental shift that helped me release my expectations of what a typical in-person group class is like: Embrace the teaching strategies and lesson elements that are uniquely well suited for virtual classes, and adjust previous in-person strategies to suit the platform. With this invigorated motivation, I created a 35-page activity book that I use with my students (String Me Along Sample Pack free PDF download available here.)
After reading this NPR article about the worlds children experiencing an "adverse childhood event" because of the school closures and quarantine orders, this quote stood out to me, regarding teachers whose efforts to keep in touch with their students might reduce negative effects: "If provided in a way that ... continues learning in some form, they can be a real protective factor against anxiety and depression for kids." Showing up for these kids and giving them a chance to see their group class friends seems more important now than ever before.
Here are some elements and activities that have been successful in my studio:
Online Classroom Management Tactics
Create an "Order of Names." This will help the class take turns with as little confusion as possible. You can use alphabetical order, order of birthday, favorite color in order of the rainbow, anything. After setting the order (include yourself as the last player, thus signaling the loop starting over) have the children shout out their names in quick succession so they internalize who plays before and after them. Once the Order of Names is established, feel free to start with any person in the class, but proceeding in a loop according to the order of names youve set up.
Manage the Mute and Spotlight Video carefully to highlight your own frame during teaching or demonstration segments, or students during their individual performances.
For ensemble playing with pre-recorded tracks: pull up accompaniments on your own computer, and "share computer audio" from the Zoom group meeting features. Spotlight the teachers video feed. Everyone will hear the same accompaniment played through the platform while still seeing the teachers video. Play, conduct, use body language to give cues, as you normally would. This is a great time to work on physical cues for bow distribution, location and amount used for dynamic effect.
I prefer to mute the students during this segment because their delayed audio looped back into the meeting will sound "off" to their classmates trying to play along with the synced audio and video from the teacher. In the gallery view, bow strokes will appear synced up!
Review PiecesPass the Piece in the Order of Names. One person starts a piece, then "passes" it to the next student, who resumes where the first person left off. Try to close the gap between players by encouraging students to finger along silently and be ready when their turn comes. Review pieces that divide into predictable segments work well, such as:
- Pitches in Twinkle variations
- 4 or 8 note groups of Perpetual Motion or Etude
- 4 beats of Go Tell Aunt Rhody, Long Long Ago, Allegro
- Full phrases of longer form pieces (Minuets, Bourrées, Gavottes, Humoreske, Chorus from Judas Maccabeus)
- One bar/segment each of the trio from Beethoven Minuet in G
- Hopping 3 spot and A arpeggio in Song of the Wind
- Arpeggios of Witches Dance
- Quarter note cadences with grace notes in Gossec Gavotte
- Create Poll options in the Zoom meeting for several different intervals, scales, major or minor chords, etc. Teacher plays intervals, students use meeting controls to select their poll option. Discuss.
- Higher or Lower. Teacher plays two pitches, students determine which pitch is higher, lower or the same. Refine pitch discrimination by using the sharp or flat version adjacent to an in-tune pitch.
- Listen and Find. (free handout here) Display a score on the screen using share feature, play the recording of a piece while you look for a particular rhythm, motive, or expression markings. Use a highlighter on the screen to mark or circle when you find them.
- Fingers and Strings. (free handout here) A game for fingerboard fluency. Pluck and say note names across the string with the same finger, or up and down the same string with all fingers. Practice as a group, then time each child, giving multiple repetitions to achieve their personal best time.
- Note Spellers. (free handout here) Project a note speller page on the share screen. Have the children shout out the answers in order while the teacher marks it on the page for all to see.
Vivaldi, Spaghetti, Campagnoli, Dragonetti, Capellini, Albinoni, Paganini, Ravioli, Tartini, Fettuccine, Corelli, Torelli, Rossini, Rigatoni, Rotini, Respighi, Rachmaninoff, Stroganoff, LeClair, éclair, Paganini, vermicelli, Veracini, Giuliani, Spaghetti, Caprice, Caprese, Boccherini, Broccolini, Tartini, Tortellini, Ravel, Ravioli, Ligeti, Linguini, Satie, Satay, Menotti, Manicotti, Blini, Bellini, Casals, Cassoulet, Liszt, Blintz, Bucatini, Farandole, Farfalle, Rutini, Cocchi, Gnocchi, Habanera, Habanero, Adagio, Formaggio, Ockeghem, Orechetti, Dallapiccola, Pico de Gallo, Piazzolla, Pizza, Tiremisu, Takemitsu, Scarlatti, Frescobaldi, Sevcik, Ceviche, Humperdinck, Pumpernickel, Twinkle, Twinkies.2. Form Sandwiches (free handout here) Using paper, felt, or plastic sandwich components, experiment with different arrangements of form for various pieces. Have students play a section or phrase at a time and build the sandwich. Display a sandwich and have them discover which piece it can represent. Keep in mind that form analysis can be fluid and subject to opinion multiple right answers can be entertained! Collaborations Advanced players and teens may enjoy creating video collaborations like this one on their own or with friends. Use group class time to plan out parts, harmonies, and create a plan for form. More detail on this element for groups for teens coming in Part III.You might also like: